Welcome to all the delegates attending the 3-day Kisan Swaraj Sammelan in Hyderabad. By now, you must have booked your tickets to reach Hyderabad. Here are some details about the logistics for the sammelan and we request you to kindly read this note completely:

How to reach: The venue is 5km away from Secunderabad Railway station and 10 kms from Hyderabad (Nampally) Railway station and Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (called Imlivan bus station).

Accommodation facility: Accommodation for the delegates is being arranged at various places on sharing basis, within 5 kms’ distance from the venue. Accommodation will be simple, on a shared basis and in many locations, in dormitories. We will be sending your respective accommodation details shortly along with a map (to team leaders in case a large contingent is traveling together). All meals consisting of organic food, including breakfast will be provided at the meeting venue. The delegates are therefore requested to get ready by 7 am every day to be picked up by buses. In case you cannot get into the bus at the time it leaves for the venue, you are requested to make your own arrangements to reach the venue.

Weather: The temperatures in Hyderabad are above 400C – we request the delegates to come prepared with a cap or cloth to cover your head, your water bottle and light cotton clothes.

Arrival-Departure details: Those delegates who have not sent their arrival departure details should send them immediatelyincluding date and time. This will help us arrange accommodation and food facilities properly.

Kindly note that accommodation has been booked from 31st March 2016 evening to 3rd April 2016 evening. In case you are coming ahead of this time, or staying on beyond this, kindly do take care to pay for your additional days of stay directly. We hope you will appreciate that we are organizing this convention through crowd-funding and are running this on a shoestring budget and would not mind us gently prodding you on this.

Things to bring with you: While it will be hot during the days and warm during the nights, if you wish to carry your own clean bed sheet and pillow cover, kindly do so. Also please bring your personal medicines along with you though we are making arrangements for a first-aid kit, and emergency medical help at the venue.

BEFORE YOU SET OFF ON YOUR JOURNEY:

We would like to request all participants or teams of participants to please bring cloth banners with the name of your organizations and slogans for display. You could use your vernacular language for the same. Mind you, we are not looking for flex banners and we are actually attempting our best to make this convention a plastic-free and if possible, litter-free event!

ASHA (Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture), from the dialogues that emerged during the Kisan Swaraj Yatra and subsequent work, articulates a 4-pillared Kisan Swaraj Neeti and calls on governments to adopt the same. This policy articulation provides a framework for a forward-looking agricultural policy approach for India.

The four pillars of Kisan Swaraj are income security for farmers; ecological sustainability of agriculture; people’s control over resources like land, forests, water and seed; and access to safe, healthy, sufficient food for all. Based on the Kisan Swaraj Neeti framework first fleshed out in 2011, ASHA had subsequently put out a Charter of Demands in early 2014.

(The above is a discussion note. This is in the context of a substantial number of farmers being left out of the current “MSP and procurement” systems and the many shortcomings of these systems, wherein even the cost of cultivation is not getting covered by the prices of the produce, leave alone leave any living income for farmers for a dignified life. Any feedback might be sent to Kavitha Kuruganti at kavitha.kuruganti@gmail.com).

FOR THE KISAN SWARAJ SAMMELAN IN HYDERABAD IN APRIL 2016, DISCUSSION NOTES WERE CREATED ON VARIOUS THEMES THAT ASHA WORKS ON. These discussion notes are given below, in addition to the Introductory Note on ASHA that was circulated to the participants and an Introduction to the Resource Persons who dealt with these themes during the Sammelan.